MANCHILD IN THE PROMISED LAND, pages read (163-203)

Summary

                Claude is still selling pot, and on the streets because he has nowhere to go.

                One day Claude is stopped be a junkie and asked to give him everything that he has. The junkie respected Claude by calling him sonny. According to Manchild in the Promised Land, it states that the junkie was nervous but was not scared. How can you be nervous and not scared? It doesn’t make any sense, at least to me. The junkie wasn’t scared of Claude, and he said that he would kill him because all he wanted was to have what Claude had. This is very interesting because it seems very weird and that’s just what happens in the world.

                 Claude is out to get a gun and kill the junkie that just robbed him. If you are someone that is dealing drugs to people, and one day you get stocked up by a random person, that only wants your drugs, then you are going to be made fun of. Claude didn’t want to have people laugh at hi, and for people to stick him up without any weapons. Claude was embarrassed, and had to borrow a gun from his old friend Danny that still stuck around. If Claude let the junkie get away from robbing him, Claude could never come back on the streets again. This is the life of a hustler.

                As soon as Claude came out of Warwick, he met sugar. Sugar has become the love of his life. This is very ironic. I say this because before Claude even went to Warwick, he called sugar ugly, and called her so many bad names that would make her feel bad about her. She’s the prettiest girl that I’ve ever met, is what Claude says about sugar now that she has a better complexion and has figures of a Goddess.

                Doing the hit got a lot of people killed and more people involved in things. Younger people started doing the hit, and because of this they started doing drugs. People who needed drugs didn’t play with their money and started stealing money from people so that they could buy drugs. The hit was a way to make poor people transform into a rich person. Life was no longer the same as it used to be with drugs and hit in Harlem.

                According to the autobiography, Claude expresses that whenever men got high they realized that women were the ones who ran everything. I believe this, because all some men want to do is throw away their life. Sometimes I wonder why men can’t be like women. Till this day that question can’t be answered.

Quote

                ‘’ Look, man, it’s like you said; we came the street way together, and you know how that shit is. You know if I don’t kill that mother-fucker, I can’t come out on the street any more with any stuff in my pocket talkin’ about I’m gon deal drugs. Niggers will be laughin’ comin’ up in my collar, and sayin’, give me what you got.’ I mean, if I did that kinda shit. If I let the cat go on livin’, mother-fuckers would be tryin’ to rob me without a gun. That would the end of it all.’’

Reaction

 I like the way how Claude says this quote, and I mean the dialect. Claude’s dialect is very strong, and it’s very interesting.  I like the fact that Claude expresses his feelings and says to Danny that hey you I can’t let this junkie get away with stealing my drugs because I’ll get laughed at. I don’t like the way how Claude calls people bad names, because it’s disrespectful. I don’t see why Claude can’t respect the junkie and call him a junkie instead of something else that is very different from whom the person really is. I feel very bad that Claude was robbed of his drugs by a junkie, I mean that’s very sad, but at the same time the junkie had a gun. I thought Claude would have acted more manly to this situation, and stand up to this junkie and tell him that you know what I’m not giving you me drugs, so the only way you’re going to get it is if you really shoot me. I thought that hustler would act hard no matter what. My question that I have is, is Claude scared of being killed, or being shot? Earlier on in the book, it stated that Claude got ran over by a bus, and all sorts of other things that could have gotten him killed. I really wonder, if Claude has been in so many bad situations in his life, where he could have been killed, then why is he scared of death?

MANCHILD IN THE PROMISED LAND, pages read (122-163)

Summary

Claude’s parents kicked him out of their house, because Claude just keeps on missing up, and doing the wrong things. Since Claude was kicked out of his house, he had nowhere else to go. Going to Warwick is the only place that Claude could go, because he didn’t want to live on the streets. Being in Warwick has changed his life. While being in Wiltwyck, Claude use to hangout with his friends, and do the same bad things that he did when he was home in Harlem. Now that Claude is living in Warwick, all he does is read, and he didn’t want to be bothered by anyone that tired to bother him or even talk to him.

            After Claude knew he wasn’t going to stay in Warwick, Claude left, and decided to go back on the street. All of Claude’s friends were gone, and Claude had to go somewhere. Claude started selling pot in order to go somewhere besides Warwick. Not only did Claude sell pot, but Claude changed after coming out of Warwick. Claude started hanging out with his old friend Turk. Turk was the only old friend Claude could hang out with, for the fact that Claude’s old friends were lost in drugs, and were lost in life as well.

            Claude quite his first job and dealt pot. Claude met a new friend from Harlem and his name is Reno. Reno was going to show all kinds of hustling tricks.

            Downtown is where Claude did his hustling. Claude made a whole lot more money from selling pot, thank working a regular job. Even though Claude knew then that cocaine was bad, and that it might even be worse than horse, and once he saw a girl snort some up her nostril he decided to snort some up his nose. Claude found his thing to get high and that was cocaine. Cocaine wasn’t a habit forming drug, so Claude stayed with cocaine. Buying a cap of cocaine was five dollars, which was less than a dollar cap of horse, which Claude will never turn back to again, at least not from the bad experience that he had with it.

            Claude’s mother was crying after she found out that Claude was going to live in a house on Hamilton Terrace in a little nice room that was just for slick people were all hustlers. Claude came home after everyone in a while and gave his parents money, after a while Claude’s parents stopped asking him where he had gotten it from.

Quote

‘’ yeah, man, but that’s not the main thing. The main thing is to stop screamin’ on the area men. You can go and have your rumbles and shit if you want, but you know if you stab anybody and they find out about it, you’re through. The only way you gon make it outta here is to cool it. Didn’t I tell you I wasn’t gon stay up here a year when I came? And now I’m walkin’, right? So it must be somethin’ to it.’’

(Brown, 145)

Reaction

            This quote is very ironic to me. I say this because Claude, earlier on in the book was talking about how he didn’t want to get stabbed because he was afraid at the time when he seen his father wound on his neck. I wonder why Claude said that the main thing is to stop screaming. What does going to war and being in a gang have to do with screaming in an area?  I like how Claude said that the only way you’re going to make it out of here is to cool it. To me that sentence says that the only way you’re going to survive is if you don’t put your self in so much trouble and do anything bad where people will want to come after you and hurt you. I believe that it’s about time is Claude should get right and do the right thing and start to set good examples for his friends. I like Claude’s dialect, because it is very cultural and it’s different from what I speak and how I say things. Claude’s dialect is very interesting, and it’s fun to read.

MANCHILD IN THE PROMISED LAND, pages read (80-122)

summary

       Claude is in Wilwyck and he's doing the same bad things he did when he was at his hometown.

      Claude had to go to court with his father. Going to court with his father seemed like his worst thing ever. Claude's father tried to tell him how to act and what to say in court. Claude thought to himself that his father shouldn't be the one telling him what to do, because he's been in and out of court so many times. Claude found it strange going to court with is father, because it was the first time, and he's been going with his mother all the time. Every single time the judge said something to Claude's father, he would get upset because all Claude's father would do is nod his head up and down. ''Kicking him dead in his ass'' is what Claude would do when he got big enough, if he seen his father nod his head at any white person again in his life.
   

        Going back to Wiltwyck is where Claude wanted to be, after spending time at court with his father. Stealing something and getting into alot of trouble is what Claude wanted to do. to me wanting to go back back to Witwyck, and getting into trouble is going to put Claude right back in court, so i don't understand him when he says he wants to go back to Wiltwyck, and get into alot of trouble.

         While Claude is in Wiltwyck, according to the book, Claude an the boys are very bad. Being in Wiltwyck doesn't make sense to me for the fact that the boys in Wiltwyck aren't being taught to do better in their life. Even though the boys that are bad who go to Wiltwyck, and suppose to become good boys by the time they come out, they aren't making any progress, and they are still taking part in the terrible acts just like they used to do when they were home.

       While reading, Claude and the other boys were being taught things by girls from Vassar college. The boys at Wiltwyck were told to treat the girls nice, and they they did. The girls from Vassar college took the boys from Wiltwyvk to have a picnic at their college. The Vassar college had a lot of bikes, and the girls from Vassar college told them that they could could ride them, but to make sure that they put them back where they found them. I found that to very stupid, because if you know that the boys from Wiltwyck are bad, then why would you give them consent to ride bikes that don't even belong to the girls. Some boys went back to Wiltwyck  with broken parts  from bikes that they were permitted to ride.

        When Claude came back from Wiltwyck on a visit, he acted the same. Claude wanted to act hipped. Wiltwyck destroyed his relationship with friends that he had before he went off to Wiltwyck. Claude didn't know who people were after coming back from Wiltwyck. Claude only wanted to hang out with his new friends from Wiltwyck. The only time Claude would even see his old friends, such as Tito, and Turk, is when he needed them, other wise Claude had no clue to where his old friends were.
  

  Quote
   
        '' If a bitch ever tells you she's only got a penny to buy the baby some milk, take it. You take it, 'cause she's gon  git some more. Bitches can always git some money.''
                                       (Brown, 109)

Reaction

       At this time in the story Claude was listening to one of his new friends named  Johnny D, that he met when he came back from Wiltwyck. I really want to say that after reading this quote, Johnny D isn't lying, he is so true. what i don't like is the fact that he's calling women the B word, because it is very disrespectful, but it came out of Johnny D's mouth and not mine, because i know i won't ever, ever in my life for as long as i  live call a women that rude name, because it's not right. I'm sure that if anyone ever called Johnny D that name he would beat them up. The reason why i say this quote is so true is because i had experience before with that same situation. Women have money, and you know that they are going to get more even if they tell you that it's their last penny. Back in the old times, may be when there was segregation, women always had an education, and boys would be the one with no sense of education, and because of that men didn't make that much money. people may have other opinions on this quote, but that's how i feel. I like the dialect that's in this quote, because you know that the person who said this quote is from down south, and since i wasn't born in down south i like to get a feel for the dialect,because mines is boring,i would like to speck something else then just plan old english, really.
        

MANCHILD IN THE PROMISED LAND, pages read (40-80)

summary

               Claude just came back from a trip to the south. Claude is thinking about his dad and wonders if his dad misses him. claude already knows that his father doesn't miss him. Claude has a bad relationship with his father. Every time Claude's father tried to talk to him, Claude would bullshit him, as he says, which means that he would look serious as if his father was saying something real smart. Claude's father pounding on him instead of talking to him because he was always stumbling over his words and repeated himself. If i was in that situation where my father couldn't talk to me and all he did was pound on me, i would have a bad relationship with my father too. Claude is always saying that he can't wait until he's big enough to kick his fathers ass, and wondering if his father would talk to him then. If Claude doesn't like his father pounding on him then he should say something to him, and let his father know that i don't like what you are doing to me, and i rather you talk to me. It's crazy  that you should go through that every time your father wanted to talk to you, that's a bad thing to live with, because if Claude has children, there is a high chance that he would do the same thing, and it doesn't have to be because he stumbles over his words, or repeats himself so many time that he just gets tired of it and has to do something else to get out what he has to say.

               After Claude's long trip in the south, Claude went back to school. Claude finds the most prettiest girl ever, and her name is Grace. Before Claude met Grace, he use to chase other girls home, and beat them up. How could a boy ever do that to a girl. The thing is, he beat up so many girls and they never complained. Claude chased Grace home one day, but he never put his hands on her. A girl name Rosalind asked Claude how come he didn't chase her, and Claude told her that she wasn't as pretty as Grace. That's bad thing to tell a girl, because he probably made Rosalind feel bad. Even though Grace had braces, Claude didn't care, he still liked her, and believed that she was the one, the one girl who he really liked. To Claude, Grace was the only person that he couldn't billshit. Claude loved to play with her and he loved to see her face all day long. Grace's name was the name that made Claude happy, sometimes Claude said that Grace's  name made him happier than his mother.
    
             At the age of eleven, Claude had his first birthday party. Claude and his friends went into a jewish club and stole money from  the cash register. They also stole food from the jewish club. When Claude and his friends left the club, they had three shopping bags full of champagne for his birthday party. Old people even showed up at Claude's birthday party. Having old people show up to you're birthday party is very wierd. Having old people at you birthday party is sad, because then it would feel as if you have chaperones all over your party. Having chaperones at a teenagers party is like goig to school with your parents. you can't act how you act without your parents around, and that's normal for every teenager. It's funny because later on in the story Claude forgot all about Grace, and now likes another girl, that seemed ugly to him before his birthday party.

          Wiltwyck is where Claude was sent in order for him to become a good boy. The first night that Claude spent there, he had a bad dream. All Claude can think about is going home. Claude lives with a whole bunch of other boys a house in Wiltwyck. In the house, K.B., Claude's partner comes in the room one night and shows Claude that he jerked off. After that digusting act took place, every boy wants to jerk off. That is just sad, i know that they are young men, and they are going up, but that is just crazy. If i knew that, that nasty act was going to happen, i would of skipped over that page, but i didn't know so i read it.

      Quote
   

          '' When he said he was Mr. Upshur, i knew he couldn't help me. He was colored. What could he do for anybody''
                                 (Brown, 75)
      Reaction


            When i read this quote, it stung my heart. This quote put me in a postion where, when i finished reading it i had to pause and just think. While i was thinking, i thought about the meaning, the full concept of what this quote meant. This quote really touched me. I sad wow, while i was thinking about this quote. This quote made me think about what people might say about me when i have a job. I thought would people think the same way of me. I couldn't beleive this quote when i heard it, because i was asking how could Claude say something like this? I know Claude is black, and i don't understand how he could say something like this ever in his life. I just didn't expect this to be said. This quote makes me very up set, and i'm mad that i ended reading this. Not to be racist in any form of way, but if i was white i would still have the same opinion, becuase that's crazy. Why would anyone ever think or say something like that. After reading this quote, i was so mad at Claude for saying that, because it wasn'y nice. I believe that Claude was being racist of his own kind. That's crazy.
 

MANCHILD IN THE PROMISED LAND, pages read (1-41)

                SUMMARY

                                The protagonist in the story of Manchild In The Promised Land is a thirteen year old boy. The thirteen year old boy was hanging out with his bad friends and got shot. The protagonist thought that he was going to die from a bullet that hit him right in one of his legs. The protagonist ran into a fish-and-chips joint, and the owner of the joint said ‘’ git outta here, kid. I ain’t got no time to play’’ (Brown, 9), and pushed him down on to the ground.  After hours the protagonist was sent to the hospital, where he had so many bad dreams. After eleven day, the thirteen year old was released from the hospital and went to a convalescent home in Valhalla. About after three years after living in Valhalla, an activity  director told him that he had to see a judge. The judge sent him to an all boy’s school, hoping that he would be a better boy when he came out. The protagonist is a very bad boy. The teenager didn’t want to go to an all boy’s school, so one day the protagonist woke up screaming, and banging on the wall for two days, the third day he was sent to Bellevue for observation. By the time the judge was ready to send the teenager to Warwick , they had a full house, so the judge sent him home for two weeks. The protagonist is so bad, and still is alive. The protagonist was hit by a car, hit by a bus, and set a house afire. In the following pages the protagonist talks about things in his life that may have been new and some thing  that weren’t. One thing that wasn’t new was that the protagonist went out to stores and rob the store of all the money that it had. One thing that wasn’t new is that the protagonist went to church for the first time, and when everyone else was putting in money that they had, the protagonist didn’t put in the only dime that he had, which wasn’t a surprise to his siblings.  The protagonist experiences life as he hangs out with his friends. The thirteen year old boy’s aunt came to Harlem from the south to visit them. After the aunt and the mother of the thirteen year old talked, about how bad the protagonist is, the mother tells the protagonist is going to spend time with his aunt in the south.

                QUOTE

                                 ‘’ yeah, sumpin is sho wrong with that boy, but I don’ think he’s crazy or nothin’ like that, ‘cause he got a whole lotta sense when it comes to gittin’ in trouble. And when I stop to think about it, I don’t believe nobody worked no roots on him, ‘cause he got too much devil in him to be tricked by them root workers. But what coulda happen is that he went someplace and sassed some old person, and that old person put the bad mouth on him. Yeah, more’n likely that’s what happened to him, ‘cause he always sassing old people. I beat him and keep tellin’ him not to talk back to people with gray hair, but that little devilish nigger got a head on him like rock. Lord, I don’t know what to do with that boy. I just hope pimp don’t never git that bad.’’ (Brown, 9)

                REACTION

                I like this quote, because it tells you that this child is so bad, that even the child’s mother doesn’t even know what to do with him. Usually from my perspective, I noticed that bad kids don’t have a lot of sense, and that’s the reason for their behavior. This quote proved me wrong, allowing me to see that my stereotype is wrong, and that just because a child is bad, they don’t have to be stupid, and that they could have sense. I surprised just like the mother when she said that she couldn’t believe that no one has worked roots on him yet. At first when I read this quote to myself I asked myself what does roots mean in this quote? I read the quote again to myself and realized that it meant talked back, or even smacked him. I was always told that I shouldn’t talk back, or act bad towards seasoned people, and I’m surprise no one smacked the protagonist, because he is so bad. Pimp is the brother of the thirteen year old boy. I liked how the mother said that she hopes pimp wouldn’t get that bad, because I’m hoping the same thing to for him.